Latest news from the 2011 LUXGSM - World Balloon Trophy

The General Briefing took place yesterday afternoon but it was raining very hard outside. All 31 pilots from 12 countries arrived and are ready to compete. Some are new and some came back after some years. There are some new faces around, which is very nice. The weather doesn't look very good but hopefully there will better weather for the weekend. This morning 29 July, the sky was covered with fog and mist. However, 5 tasks (FIN, PDG, LRN, FON and ANG) could be flown - some of them will be scored to the physical markers and some others will be scored with flight trucks. Launch period was extended till 9 AM. All the tasks could be flown in any order and all the tasks had to be finished by 10:30. At the target, the sound of the burners could be heard but it was impossible to see the balloons themselves because of the mist! Very slowly many pilots arrived at the target. Stefan Zeberli, last year's Champion, was very patient at the target to approach. It seemed that he passed away but he read the wind to go back and to come back to the target, and his result was 0.36 meters! Around the landing time the fog and mist were gone and the pilots landed safely.